Il n'y avait, du reste. 'Nor was there,' E.B

1. 7. grenadiers. The original grenadiers were the picked men of a regiment, who were armed with hand-grenades, i.e. small bomb-shells thrown by hand. The term was subsequently, and is still, applied to certain companies of picked and generally tall men.

1. 10. de bleuâtre qu'elle était. For this idiom see E.B. 1 20 (4) ; qu'elle était is better omitted in translating. Notice the unusual position of souvent, quelque/ois.

1. 14. la campagne d'Espagne. In 1823 a French army entered Spain to put down a popular rising. This was done in pursuance of the policy of the Holy Alliance declared at the Congress of Verona. The idea of the Alliance was to enforce the rights of sovereigns against their subjects. Canning protested on behalf of England. This campaign was the only one in which Alfred de Vigny could have taken part during his few years of service, and he was much disappointed at being unable to do so.

1. 19. approchait. The commonest meaning of approcher with an accusative is to have access to a sovereign or great personage. Here there is something of the same idea ; not merely nearness, but the power of getting at the enemy is implied. See p. 2, 1. 14.

1. 20. se prendre corps à corps, 'to grapple hand to hand.' The pronoun se is reciprocal, ' each other ;' so that avec lui would seem superfluous. But the original meaning of the pronoun is forgotten in the general meaning of the phrase.